For much of the last 40 years, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been wracked by political and social instability. Continuing violence and lack of essential services directly impact on children’s right to protection and education in the DRC.Children are affected through constant displacement, separation from families, exposure to extreme events, loss of family members, abduction, forced recruitment into the fighting forces, and other gross violations of their basic human rights.

Save the Children, with funding from CIDA, is responding to meet the emergency sanitation and protection needs of children affected by the conflict. In 2008, we rehabilitated schools, constructed latrines and distributed essential school supplies. By the end of the year, over 6,600 children were being supported with school kits, and 720 students were benefiting from accelerated learning classes specifically designed for children at particular risk of recruitment into armed forces. Teachers and other school staff were also trained in emergency education.

Through community networks, the DRC program further strengthens child protection by helping vulnerable children (identified by the community) including those displaced by the conflict, orphaned children, those with physical disabilities, and those from pygmy and indigenous communities.

In September 2008, fighting intensified in the DRC’s North Kivu Province between government and regional armed groups. Military movement led to panic within the population and resulted in mass movement in Masisi Territory, one of the areas where Save the Children had been working.

As of May 9, 2009, Save the Children has been able to help reunify 63 children with their families in Petit Nord and continues to work hard to provide children with improved education and protection and with the necessary  to reintegrate into society.